First, I want to thank you, very sincerely, for all the comments, emails, phone calls about my accident. Graham seems to be fine, I am healing, and our car, well, our car will be fixed in a couple of weeks. My right thumb went from looking like a sausage to just having a big bruise. I am almost able to bend it without pain. Physical injuries hurt but I think my soul was crushed more than my body. After Randy came home early from his high school reunion, I sort of crashed emotionally. I was very melancholy and all I wanted to do was sleep. Guilt and fear can do that to you. Thankfully, after a day and a half of that, I am spiritually on the mend as well as physically. It helped, very much, to continue getting lovely notes from you all during that rough patch.

Moving on – Who Won the Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook?? I have to say, this was a fascinating exercise. Reading about the recipes you all are trying to find made me want to sit down and email each of you to say, “Well, have you tried this one??” Some of you I couldn’t help (I’m talking to the pork people and those on a meat sauce quest) but some of you I could. If you are searching for a chocolate chip cookie, have you tried this one?

I’m not saying these recipes are perfect, but I like them very much. Your comments gave me some wonderful new ideas to try for this blog. And I also realized that my all-time favorite butternut squash soup is not here. That will be remedied next week. More vegetable soups will follow as will gingerbread, biscuits, and a perfect marinara. Please know that I am on my own quest too. Thanks for all the ideas.

And without further ado, based on my random generator, the cookbook winner is: